Momoi Taro wants to form a "don" brother duo, but it's a music anime.

Page 62

"There's no need to worry so much," Yamada Ryo, with her short blue hair, said in a very cold voice. Everyone else in the room looked at Yamada Ryo, who was holding a bunch of grass in her hand and said with an extremely calm expression, "Isn't it enough to let him confirm that Pochi has changed?"

"Does Ryo-senpai have any ideas?" Kita looked at Yamada Ryo, who was trying to act cool, with starry eyes. She twisted a bunch of grass into a stick, put it in her mouth, and calmly said, "Isn't Pochi able to receive guests normally lately? If we just treat that Master Taro as a guest, we can get away with it."

"In that case! Maybe it will work!" A bright light shone in Pochi's eyes, as if he had seen something called hope, and he practically floated up. That's right, he wasn't the same Goto Ichiri anymore! He had grown!

"Little Bochi, you're getting all cocky again," Hongxia said calmly, her eyes now like cat's.

“Senior, you’re amazing!” Yamada Ryo proudly twitched his nose as he met Kita’s admiring gaze, and then stuffed the Grass King’s mouth with a little force.

"Senpai! You're so unique!" Kita looked at him with unwavering admiration, while Nijika teased again, "Ryou, did you buy something that made you broke again?"

"I bought the new manga, and then I bought a new bass." Yamada Ryo's words were full of self-righteousness.

"It's so cold, really." Hongxia complained helplessly again.

On the other side, Aine and Taro got off at Shimokitazawa Station. Aine held her phone, looking at the location sent by Pochi: "Let me see, we're here now, and then we need to go there..."

While Aine was still slowly confirming, Taro had already strode away without hesitation. Aine watched his movements, her small eyes widening slightly, then she quickly reacted and chased after him: "Wait, wait! Where is Taro going!? We're going to the Dokudo Band's livehouse! It's better not to wander around in unfamiliar territory!"

Taro didn't stop walking and explained, "I know that livehouse. I first saw Goto there. Hailing also introduced me to that place."

"Huh? Hai Ling?" She thought about Hai Ling's character and nodded to confirm. If we're talking about livehouses, Hai Ling is definitely the perfect candidate.

The two arrived at the livehouse called "Starry Night." Taro pushed open the door and followed Aine inside. The seemingly fierce proprietress glanced at Taro but before she could say anything, Bochi, who was standing to the side, greeted them with a beaming smile: "Welcome. Master Taro, Aine."

Ai Yin stared wide-eyed at Boqi with a look of utter disbelief, tilting her head back slightly in astonishment. She had never seen anything like it before!

Taro first looked at Bochi, then at Manager Hoshika, and then back at Bochi: "What are you doing? Aren't you supposed to be practicing?"

Bochi's face froze, his body trembling. What to do? What to do? This wasn't what he expected. Wait, stop thinking about it! If he keeps thinking, he'll... drift out of business mode!

Cold sweat streamed down her face, and she stammered, her body trembling, "Okay, okay... it's like that..."

Xingge glanced at the farce unfolding here, said nothing, and watched as Boqi trembled as he led the two people to the band's practice room.

"Little Pochi, welcome back." Nijika smiled and greeted Pochi, thinking that Pochi had brushed Taro off. Then she saw Taro walking behind Pochi and took a small step back in surprise.

"Ah! It's the kind deliveryman!?" Kita exclaimed, covering his mouth in surprise from behind. Pochi lowered his head, silently thinking to himself, "As expected, it's Taro."

"Oh, it's you! What a coincidence." Taro smiled kindly and asked, "How's your guitar practice going?"

"Yes, thanks to you and Goto-kun, everything went very smoothly." Kita sat down in the chair, squinted his eyes, and made a peace sign.

"What's wrong? Aren't you going to start practicing?" Taro sat down on a chair and calmly looked at Pochi. Under Taro's gaze, Pochi clumsily moved a chair over and placed it in front of Kita.

Ai-yin looked at the two of them with concern, then sat down beside them, and the three of them practiced guitar together, discussing and learning from each other...

Soon, Taro frowned and shouted, "Goto, what... what do you mean by this? You played the guitar quite well before, didn't you?"

"It's all because you're here!" Pochi thought to himself, but dared not speak.

"Well... there are too many strangers, it's normal to feel a little uncomfortable," Aine said, trying to smooth things over for Pochi. Kita nodded and praised, "Although I don't know much about guitar, Goto-kun's guitar must be pretty good."

“Compared to her actual skill level, it’s far too low!” Taro replied to Kita first, then looked into Goto’s eyes and calmly asked, “When you perform on the street, there are far more strangers than here. You could do it then, so why can’t you do it now?”

“That was…” Boqi’s mouth opened slightly, as if she wanted to explain something, but she didn’t know what to say. Was her performance during the live show just a momentary impulse? Had her true self not changed at all?

She sensed something was wrong; she had indeed changed, but the problem was that she couldn't articulate exactly what had changed.

"Speaking of which, shouldn't we have a band meeting?" Nijika, with her blond hair, broke the awkward atmosphere and casually discussed it with Yamada Ryo beside her.

Hongxia sighed inwardly. Originally, she wanted to bring this up in a more formal setting, but unfortunately, she had to bring it up early to help Xiaoboqi out of that awkward situation. She hadn't prepared the props yet, but she would write them down later.

"A band meeting, what is that?" Surprisingly, it was Momoi Taro who asked the question. All five of them looked at him with great astonishment.

Aine asked curiously, "Isn't Taro a support musician at that RAISE-A-SUILEN... that name is so hard to pronounce, and Roselia too? How come you don't know about the band meeting?"

Taro nodded and said, "I've been a support musician in about four bands, but none of them had any kind of band meetings."

“RAISE-A-SUILEN and Roselia… are they the two that debuted?” Ryo suddenly spoke up, then thought for a moment and said, “Speaking of which, I saw your performance; your guitar playing was excellent.”

"Yes, I think so too," Taro accepted her praise matter-of-factly. Whether it was a misperception or not, the girl named Yamada Ryo's eyes lit up, seemingly satisfied with Taro's answer, and she looked at him with admiration.

Aine felt like the words "+1 to affection level" were popping up above the blue-haired girl's head.

"Then...then..." Aine quickly interrupted the awkward atmosphere and asked, "If Taro's band didn't have band meetings before, how did they decide when to hold a live performance?"

Taro looked up at the ceiling, carefully recalling, "It seems that it all started after the leader at the time made the decision."

"Isn't this dictatorship!?" Aine suddenly remembered that when she first met Taro, he seemed to have made the same sudden decision. Did he learn it from his previous band?

"Ah~ let me explain," Hongxia said, pulling out a whiteboard from somewhere and writing and drawing on it as she explained, "A band meeting is when everyone in the band gets together to solve various problems. We brainstorm and work together to overcome difficulties!"

On Hongxia's whiteboard, she drew a round table, and then several stick figures, representing everyone who had finished the band.

“Well then, we should probably start preparing for the band meeting.” Hongxia said with a smile, while Boqi nodded frantically in agreement, thinking that escaping from Momoi Taro’s side was the only way to get away.

“I see, no wonder we don’t need a band meeting.” Taro looked enlightened, which made Kita, who had met Taro once before, ask curiously, “Why did the deliveryman say we don’t need a band meeting?”

Aine also looked at Taro, a vague sense of unease creeping into her heart. Could it be—

“Because—band meetings are about solving problems together, right?” Taro countered with a question, then smiled confidently and said, “I can solve problems on my own; that’s my responsibility as the band’s leader. So, band meetings? We don’t need them.”

Aine slapped her own face, then held her forehead. Sure enough, this was exactly Taro's style.

Stare—x3

The three band members who had finished their performance all stared at Hongxia, seemingly interrogating her about her responsibilities. Seeing this, cold sweat beaded on Hongxia's forehead. She then clenched her fist, smiled, and raised her hand high, cheerfully declaring, "Alright! The band meeting is officially in session! Wow!"

[They managed to fool them] x4

Episode 4 of "Dong": Can I borrow some money?

"Let's move to a different spot first, everyone, let's go a little further inside." Nijika rallied everyone to leave the practice room. She looked at Taro and said cheerfully, "As for Momoi-san and Aine..."

"I'd like to see, is that alright?" Taro's direct question made Nijika's face stiffen for a moment. He said, "I've never experienced these things before, maybe they can provide some reference for the development of our band."

Hongxia twisted her neck with a creaking sound and looked at Aine sitting to the side.

Aine glanced at Taro, who was sitting in a chair with his arms crossed, then at Bochi, whose body was still stiff but not as stiff as usual, and finally looked at Nijika, who had a smile on her face. She clasped her hands together and pleaded, "Um... I'm also very curious about the band's memories. Can I take a look?"

"Well... if that's what Aine says, then there's nothing we can do." Hongxia nodded and led everyone to the meeting place she had prepared. She took out a notebook from underneath and then wrote and drew on it with a pen.

She sighed inwardly. Originally, she wanted to take her time to prepare everything first before slowly bringing up the issues. Fortunately, it wasn't too far ahead of schedule.

"Alright, that's today's topic!" She slammed the notebook with the title she had just written on onto the table, revealing the still-wet ink, and read aloud, "It's about 'How to look more like a band.'"

An awkward atmosphere filled the air, but Kita and Aine, being the two most outgoing characters, raised their hands and started clapping based on their experience. Seeing that they were about to clap, Pochi also clapped along.

Pah, pah, pah, pah.

However, what they truly thought was—

Too vague.

Yamada Ryo ignored the three people who were clapping, then casually rested his chin on his hand. Taro, on the other hand, leaned back in his chair as if he didn't understand anything, arms crossed, waiting for the other to explain.

The pressure is immense… Under Momoi Taro's gaze, beads of sweat glistened on Nijika's forehead under the ambient lighting of the meeting room, but her smile didn't fade. Ignoring the awkward atmosphere, she said, "We finally managed to gather all the members, so I want the four of us to first develop a more band-like feel."

"I see... I see." Pochi's eyes widened slightly, and he clapped enthusiastically. Taro frowned, about to say something, when Nijika spoke up.

“I know very well that hard work is the most important thing,” she said softly, then raised an eyebrow, her triangular tuft of hair on her head twitched slightly, and her expression softened even more: “But we can’t just focus on practicing all day long, I think communication is also very important.”

“Yes, yes,” Ai Yin nodded vigorously, agreeing repeatedly: “If you keep practicing before you have a clear goal to strive for, it’s easy to give up.”

Aine speaks with such empathy and unwavering agreement that she can't help but explain why, as she has lived most of her life this way.

"I see. In order for the band to be more efficient, adequate rest is also necessary." Taro nodded, but only nodded, without saying anything further.

Originally, Taro didn't quite agree with this statement, but since Aine said it, he would seriously consider its feasibility. Looking at Aine, he, who was never good at interpreting others' meanings, asked directly:

"Aine, were you like this before? Because the practice was too heavy, so the subsequent practice didn't have much effect?"

Hearing Taro's words, Aine's expression didn't look too good, but seeing the others looking at her with concern, she took a deep breath and chuckled softly, "It's nothing. It's just that I used to give up immediately when I encountered even the slightest setback. I think that was probably because I didn't have a firm goal."

Taro nodded without speaking, and the atmosphere grew heavy. Aine chuckled softly, "Then, um... this one...?"

"Ah, I seem to have forgotten to introduce myself," Kita quickly interjected, introducing himself to Aine and Taro: "My name is Kita, that's Ichiji Nijika-senpai over there, and that super cool guy over there is Yamada Ryo."

"Just call me Nijika." Nijika tried to dispel the lingering oppressive atmosphere with a smile. Yamada Ryo, who was resting his chin on his hand, nodded and said softly, "Just call me by my name."

"Okay, Nijika-san, Ryo-san, and Kita-san, I'm Chihaya Aine, you can just call me Aine. Nice to meet you." Aine waved her hand and her bright smile returned. Then, she gradually regained her composure and asked, "So, specifically, what do we need to do?"

As if speaking of her area of ​​expertise, Hongxia, holding up her notebook, quickly chimed in, "We can start with the surface-level work."

“It’s great!” Kita chimed in, picking up where Nijika left off: “It’s like imitating trendy makeup styles; you learn to do it well as you go.”

"Is Kita-kun also interested in makeup?" Aine became interested as well. She took out her phone, opened the photo album, and moved closer to Kita, showing it off: "Look, this is a photo of me with the very popular Meow-Meng-chan online."

Kita glanced at it, frowned, then narrowed his eyes and smiled, saying, "Never heard of it before... Ah!"

Perhaps because her attention wasn't on that, Kita accidentally blurted out the truth. However, Aine waved her hand dismissively: "Although she doesn't have many subscribers yet, I think she'll definitely become incredibly popular in the future."

"It's really popular?" Boqi heard this and lowered his head slightly to search for "Miaomengqin" on his phone. Hmm, its subscriber count is nowhere near his own... If his identity were accidentally exposed now...

Pochi's inner monologue:

"Aiyin: Dudu~~ I never expected you to be such a popular guitar hero online!"

"Pochi proudly puffed out his little nose and said with feigned modesty, 'Hmph, these are nothing to me.'"

"Wow, what a cool statement!" Aine walked over to Pochi, took her arm, and gave her a photo with a smile that was just like in that group photo... no, even brighter.

Ai looked at the photo in her hand and said cruelly, "So corny! I never thought Guitar Hero was such a corny person in real life. He doesn't look good in your photo at all. This one is no longer needed."

"Aine deleted the photo in front of Boqi: 'It's so disappointing to be a fan of someone like this. Starting today, I'm unfollowing him.'"

Thinking of this, Boqi shook his head violently. No, absolutely not! His identity couldn't be revealed! Otherwise, he'd be attacked online with tens of thousands of comments. Then, Ai Yin and the rest of the band would never be his friends again!

Thinking of this, Pochi slid off the chair in the meeting room, crawled under the table, curled up on the ground, hugged his knees, and looked like a dead fish.

"Little Bochi! What's wrong all of a sudden!?" Hongxia looked at Little Bochi, who had suddenly turned gray, with alarm and asked worriedly, "Are you feeling unwell?"

"No... Qing, don't worry about me. Let me stay in the dark for a while to replenish my energy." Pochi, with his dull eyes, refused to communicate with anyone.

"Why can you replenish your energy in the dark?" Taro asked, puzzled. He then took a chocolate scallop bun from his pocket, handed it to Pochi, and said with a smile, "The most important thing for replenishing energy is food. So, don't be shy, eat up!"

Oh dear—this is completely unpredictable, what should I do! Pochi's forehead broke out in a sweat once again.

Seeing Taro's actions, Ryo put her hand, which was resting on her chin, to her mouth and let out a "pfft" laugh.

Aine and Nijika glanced at Pochi and then at Taro in unison, sighing without saying a word. Aine then slumped her head weakly onto the table.

“Come on, the dark won’t replenish any energy. If you’re low on energy, you need to eat properly,” Taro said with a smile, reaching under the table to take Pochi’s hand.